Envy director hit with fresh charges of cheating

NG YU Zhi, a director of two firms under probe for one of the largest financial fraud cases in Singapore, was charged on Tuesday with five more counts of cheating.

Ng, the director of Envy Asset Management (EAM) and Envy Global Trading (EGT), allegedly deceived five individuals between September 2020 and February 2021 into purchasing some receivables from EGT's purported sale of nickel to a firm named Raffemet - but there was no such transaction.

The individuals paid sums ranging from S$750,000 to S$4.4 million. In total, they were duped of nearly S$9 million.

Ng had been charged with cheating and fraud earlier in March.

The 33-year-old faces two charges of being a party to his two firms that were operated for fraudulent purposes and two charges of cheating a fund management company and its founder cum chief executive of at least S$48 million.

Overall, at least S$1 billion is believed to have been invested with EAM and EGT for the purported sale and purchase of nickel, making this one of the largest financial fraud cases in Singapore.

Of this, S$300 million was allegedly transferred to Ng's personal account, while about S$200 million remained unaccounted for. The Commercial Affairs Department has seized about S$100 million of assets from Ng.

Ng has been out on bail of S$1.5 million, with electronic monitoring imposed by the court.

He will return to court on May 17.

If convicted, Ng could be jailed up to 10 years and fined for each count of cheating.

For each count of fraudulent trading, he could be jailed for up to seven years, fined up to $15,000 or both.

Read more:

• Envy director charged with fraud; at least S$1b invested in his 2 firms
• Director of firms under probe also owns several F&B outlets
• Envy director charged with cheating and fraud has links to vehicle firms